Amanda Whiteley is a director, producer and photographer. Currently, she is part of the MFA Directing Class of 2027 at the Yale School of Drama (DGSD).
She believes that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity and furthermore that storytelling through theatre has the potential to be one of the greatest reclamations of attention in the 21st Century. To her, this work is not only soul expanding but a necessary act of loving resistance.
After receiving her BA in theatre and history at Middlebury College and training in classical acting at RADA, she formed a site-specific theatre company, Spokehouse Productions, which specialized in building immersive experiences in unconventional spaces in NYC. Through her artistic direction, she re-invisioned places like Vanderbilt mansions on 95th St or ambient lounges in Bushwick as charged artistic landscapes. Directorial credits with Spokehouse include Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Color & Light devised by the company, Stupid F**king Bird by Aaron Posner, Karla, Sam & Mel are Going Straight to Hell by Chris Reisig, and Tea by Marcus Shacknow.
In collaboration with UNATC in Bucharest, Romania, she directed an award winning production of Betrayal by Harold Pinter which she and the company translated from the original English into Romanian. Over the past year, the production has been performed at festivals across the country including the International Festival in Sibiu (FITS). Other freelance collaborations in theatre include workshops at Mercury Store, Project Y, Potomac Theatre Project, Mile Square Theatre, and Middlebury College.
As a filmmaker, Amanda directs narrative music videos and freelances as a commercial producer. Some favorite music videos include, Theatrely’s Official Music Video for the 2022 Tony Awards, Come Out by Billy Reece (Huffpost Feature) Misplaced by Niamh Collins (Rome Music Video Award Winner) Jellyfish by Niamh Collins (Barcelona Indie Film Fest & Munich Music Video Award Winner), Day by Day by Lily Nelson and Boy Like U by Bryan Munar.
Amanda’s art also extends to photography. After years of working in wedding, newborn and artist portraiture, she opened her own headshot photography studio in 2022 which she has been running ever since.
At DGSD she has directed Rest Stop by Surrey Houlker as a part the New Play Lab, Other People by Aaron Magloire at the Langston Hughes Festival, and Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare. Also at DGSD, she has performed in at the Yale Cabaret in Love Sick by Caryl Churchill, directed by Andreas Andreou and assistant directed The Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, directed by Yura Kordonsky.
Her thesis production this fall will be Machinal by Sophie Treadwell.
